a. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to medical systems and medical devices employed by medical systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for assimilating information from disparate medical systems and devices.
b. Background Art
Medical systems used in the healthcare industry include various diagnostic, navigation, imaging, mapping, and treatment systems, as well as the various associated medical devices employed by such medical systems.
Medical imaging systems are used to obtain various images, still or moving, of the anatomy of patients. A wide variety of imaging systems are currently available, such as fluoroscopy, angiography, echocardiography, computed tomography, ultrasound, x-ray, nuclear, magnetic resonance imaging (MM) and other imaging systems. Typically, two-dimensional (2D) images are generated with such systems. Often, a real-time, or simulated live, moving image can be generated on a display screen.
Medical mapping systems are used to generate various models or representations of anatomy, such as portions of the heart, with respect to a three-dimensional (3D) reference frame of the mapping system. Common mapping systems and technology include impedance-based systems, such as the EnSite™ Velocity™ system utilizing EnSite™ NavX™ technology, and magnetic- or electromagnetic-based systems, such as the MediGuide™ system, each of which is available from St. Jude Medical, Inc. These systems are capable of generating complex-shaped hulls that can be rotated and viewed from different angles on a display screen.
Medical devices include, for example, ablation catheters, mapping catheters, imaging catheters, pressure and force sensing devices, and many, many others. These devices are typically configured for use with a particular type of medical system. For example, a catheter may have an ablation tip along with location sensors that can place the tip within a 3D model generated by an impedance-based mapping system. Such a catheter typically would not be compatible with a magnetic-based mapping system.
Medical devices are highly complicated and specialized devices due to the complex interaction between living tissue and potentially hazardous technology. For example, many devices have very demanding size constraints for operating within small passages of a body, which additionally increases the cost of the device. Each system and device is, therefore, typically oriented toward obtaining a particular type of data or delivering a specific type of treatment. Thus, each of these systems and devices is typically limited to a small range of procedures, requiring doctors and clinicians to utilize multiple systems and devices to perform additional procedures.
Furthermore, each of these systems may have drawbacks due to the limitations of their particular technology. For example, fluoroscopic images are accurate, but lack depth and soft tissue information, while ultrasound images provide good visualization, but have a limited view plane and include excessive noise. Also, magnetic-based mapping systems may be susceptible to interference from outside objects, while impedance-based mapping systems may be susceptible to “shift and drift” from changes in the physiology (impedance) of the body of the patient.
Information from these various system, however, cannot be combined into a more useful format or presentation. Each of these systems and devices generates data having distinct characterizing parameters, such as data resolution, sampling rate, frequency, accuracy and, the like. Thus, each of these systems typically produces an output that is unique to that system and incompatible with other systems.
Various attempts have been made to combine information from different medical systems. For example, U.S. Pub. No. 2012/0265054 A1 to Olson describes methods for registering multiple navigation systems to a common coordinate frame. U.S. Pub. No. 2012/0302869 A1 to Koyrakh et al. describes methods for correction of shift and drift in impedance-based navigation system using magnetic field information. U.S. Pub. No. 2013/0066193 A1 to Olson et al. describes methods for navigating a catheter using both impedance and magnetic medical systems. U.S. Pat. No. 7,314,446 to Byrd et al. describes methods for time gating medical images. Each of the aforementioned references is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
None of the aforementioned systems and methods, however, delivers a completely integrated user experience. In particular, visual representations of the various outputs are difficult to combine into a unified, easy to understand display. Thus, it is often left to the individual doctor or clinician to interpret multiple information streams at one time. However, data displayed on separate displays can become out of synch in a very short time, further complicating assimilation of information by the doctor or clinician.